hindsight is bliss [what a girl needs to hear]

today's sweet post is a letter from Olivia. don't we all wish we could read letters from our future selves at least once or twice? this is a precious, precious post. i hope it blesses you like it did me! show Olivia some love. <3

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[about the author] Olivia Erickson is a highschool-college hybrid who has extreme passion for many things, including mentoring junior high girls and good coffee. She writes, tweets, and tells visual stories. Someday, she will travel the country in a vintage trailer with a pet hedgehog in tow, in an attempt to find untold stories - but for now, she's just trying to stay warm and sane during long Minnesotan winters.

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Dear Little Liv,
You sat there with your feet dangling out your open window on a warm May night and you cried to yourself, wishing for a man to throw pebbles and sweep you off your feet. You were almost twelve. I wish that the one night could have been the only night you cried in your loneliness, but it wasn’t. There will be many more nights to come.

There will be nights of loneliness - of deep heart aches and longings for boys to notice you and for life just to hurry up so you can find a man. There will be nights of regret - of giving your heart slowly, over time to boys where you realize that things are suddenly complicated and you just lost a friend. There will be nights of deep pondering - of questioning intentions and feelings when you’re not sure if you like the attention or are terrified of it. There will be many tears, many racing thoughts, and many desperate prayers.

It sounds daunting, but there are also brilliant days ahead. There will be days of comfort - of realizing that the men in your life are a blessing. There will be days of confidence - of knowing that you did the right thing in a friendship with a boy and seeing the positive results. There will be days of laughter - of getting to be the little sister to the boys around and having their respect. There will be many brilliant days that will in time make up for the tearful nights.

At some point, you will sit with friends as they tell you with regret in their eyes their stories of boys that broke their hearts and you will be so glad that a relationship never formed with that boy that you were swooning over. At some point, you will hear shallow girls complain about how there are no good guys and you will be so thankful that you’ve been the type of girl that makes friend easily with really fantastic guys, even if that means not dating any of them. At some point, you will see not being allowed to date as the biggest blessing of your teen years.

It’s going to come. It’s going to be fulfilling. It’s going to blow you away. It’s going to be worth it. I promise you.

I have hindsight and what a marvelous thing it is! You wont be perfect and life wont be perfect. You are going to think that you are awful and just made the hugest mistake of your life, but in the end, you’re going to come out of junior high and the first three years of high school with very little boy baggage. There will be two amazing young men who will cause you to get angry because they will each accidentally steal a bit of your heart at the wrong time, but God heals that in the end and you’ll learn a plethora of lessons.

So hang in there. It’s only the beginning. Every single tear that you shed will be turned to gold and redeemed.